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say it: ROWN-duh-bowt
roundabout is a noun and adjective meaning "a road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island". It is pronounced /ˈɹaʊndəˌbaʊt/ — ROWN-duh-bowt. It carries 4 recorded senses.
a road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island
“the accident blocked all traffic at the rotary”
a large, rotating machine with seats for children to ride or amusement
marked by obliqueness or indirection in speech or conduct
“the explanation was circuitous and puzzling”
“a roundabout paragraph”
“hear in a roundabout way that her ex-husband was marrying her best friend”
deviating from a straight course
“a scenic but devious route”
“a long and circuitous journey by train and boat”
“a roundabout route avoided rush-hour traffic”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for roundabout come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.